The Summary of the Story of Superman
by Kyran S
Summary: A not-so-brief sample of a work in progress I'm, you know, in the process of working on. It's basically Superman's origin story, retold with some new twists. Most of it should seem pretty familiar, but the difference is in the details. Since this is a summary, the details will have to wait. Enjoy the sample.


_The following is the product of insomnia, boredom, and a story I've been bouncing back and forth in my head for the past couple of weeks. I'm working on a retelling of the origin of Superman, a reboot, so to speak, which cobbles together several elements from different cotinuities (DCAU, Birthright, 1986's The Man of Steel, the movie Man of Steel, the New 52, etc.) and combines them with my own fresh additions and I'm also currently writing a prequel of sorts that takes place on Krypton, with many new twists and turns. This isn't the story itself, keep in mind, but a __summary__ of what is to come. The work itself is in progress (hence the 'W.I.P.'), so expect the real thing to be a lot longer than this. And I mean a __lot__. This is pretty much build-up to the what's really in store for our blue-eyed protagonist. Anyway, it wasn't until I went back and looked at what I wrote that I realized how carried away I got with it, so I figured I'd post up my first addition to this wonderful site so full of creativity and imagination. Hope you enjoy and let me know what you think. Critiques are welcome and I apologize if I'm doing anything wrong here, for it's my very first time publishing here. Now read on, fellow... people (not to exclude anybody/being, but, well, y'know)! _

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><p>Clark Kent was born Kal-El of Krypton, son of Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van. In the wake of Krypton's imminent doom, Jor and Lara sent their only child to Earth so that their legacy could live on through him.<br>On Earth, Kal-El was found by Jonathan and Martha Kent, a kindly couple who had been trying to have a baby, but found no success. When their hope seemed dim, it was as if their prayers had been answered, as an alien spacecraft landed in a field in Smallville, Kansas and they took the child in as their son.

Raised as Clark Joseph Kent, he didn't really fit in with the other kids. As his alien cells drank up the nutrients of Earth's yellow sun, Clark discovered he could do things no one else could. He had to keep his distance from other kids to avoid the risk of accidentally hurting them or exposing what he really is, but he found friends in Lana Lang and Pete Ross, who helped him get through high school and not feel so alone.  
>Lana was Clark's first love and, aside from his parents, the first person to uncover the fascinating truth about the unassuming farm boy and, to his surprise, did not react with fear of the power he had, but with joy. Pete also eventually found out and, though he was a little unsure at first, he trusted Clark and Clark trusted him.<p>

There was one other boy, however, who still felt as if he were alone in the universe. That boy was Lex Luthor. Lex was a couple years older than the rest, but because of his personality and lack of motivation to do work he considered beneath him, he was held back a few grades. People practically feared him because they couldn't understand him. His intellect and how he carried himself made others feel intimidated and it isolated him from the rest. He'd made attempts to befriend some of his colleagues in the past, but was rejected time and time again, so he swore off others and decided to focus solely on himself.

This was also partly due to Lex's upbringing. His mother died at an early age and he had harsh and pushy father, who, as soon as Lex began to show an above average intelligence, forced his son into education programs and urged him to do his very best to get into a good school and be successful. Lionel punished Lex when he saw failure and hardly allowed the boy to have a social life outside of the teasing and neglect he received from his peers. All of them except for one.  
>Clark.<p>

Clark made an effort to get to know Lex, which failed the first few times he tried, but eventually, the two hit it off. 'Friends' still seems like a strong word to describe the too, but... they certainly had a unique bond. It helped that Clark was a natural when it came to astrobiology and philosophy. He could read at post-human speeds, meaning the amount of information he took in with just a quick glance was substantially greater than any other kid-or person, for that matter. He was a natural boy genius, but even his smarts paled in comparison to Lex Luthor. Even so, Lex was surprised to find someone who could manage to keep up with him, and Clark even introduced him to his parents at one point when he invited him over for dinner. It was the closest thing to friendship Lex had ever experienced.

While this is a Superman bio, it helps to know the important faces in his own personal universe. Let's delve a little more into the mind of Lex Luthor, shall we?

Lex's primary fascination when it came to science and the arts would have to be astrobiology. As he explained one night to Clark, who didn't know he was being serious at first, Lex feels like he doesn't belong. Not just in Smallville, but on this _planet_. He secretly longs to find an extraterrestrial species out there as complex and misunderstood as him, so that perhaps he could finally fit in. That said, studying anything and everything alien became a bit more than a hobby for the prodigious Luthor boy, which is precisely the reason a former Metropolis kid moved to rural Kansas. He'd pressured his father into taking them out to Smallville to set up excavation business in search of the mysterious meteorite fragments that had landed in the area years ago, so that he could study the xenomineral and find out where it came from.  
>Inevitably, he met with success, as he found a single green shard in one of the many grassy fields in the farmland. After a dramatic falling out with his father, he'd locked himself in his makeshift laboratory and dedicated two weeks to whatever he was working on.<br>Clark became concerned and decided to go over for a visit, to see if everything was all right with his troubled friend. Bringing the special telescope he'd gotten for his birthday over, Lex allowed him in to reveal to him something that would rebuild the foundations of science as we know them.

It was a generator powered by a clean and completely harmless radiation which could, quite possibly, solve the worlds' energy crisis for the foreseeable future. Clark was in awe and asked what could possibly create such an energy, so Lex showed him the source, opening the device to reveal the green, glowing meteorite fragment he'd acquired.

Unknown to Lex, however, the shard's radiation was _not_ completely harmless, as it had affected his companion upon exposure, rendering him in a great deal of pain and nausea. When Lex looked upon Clark's face, he mistook his expression for that of fear, thinking him _intimidated_ by his grand display of intellectual dominance, so he angrily threw the only friend he ever had out and cursed him and the whole town.  
>Clark was unable to explain himself as he was still suffering from the mysterious radiation poisoning and was too weak to open the doors as they were shut in his face; Lex quickly moved back to his power generator to complete its true purpose-to create a wormhole linking him from Earth to the meteorite's planet of origin, establishing a window into another world's past. But the project was a failure and blew up in the young genius's face-quite literally.<p>

The device used up too much power and the lab exploded, quickly setting fire to the Luthor residence and sending Clark flying. Lex, just barely surviving the disaster, climbed out of the rubble to find his father burning alive in the remains of their home, but instead of rescue the man who abused him all his life, the badly scarred and burned boy grabbed what remained of the xenomineral. The fire department soon arrived and carted him away. His father was dead. Clark felt terrible.  
>Their friendship had been destroyed.<p>

Clark hadn't heard from Lex for the rest of his time in Smallville and eventually decided to move on and explore the world. His relationship with Lana ended on a soft note and he said his fair wells to Pete and his parents, then went out to pursue his career as a freelance journalist, covering stories in places only someone like him could report. But everywhere he went, he was met with conflict, which forced him to reveal the alien side of himself to put others out of harms way. They reacted in fear and disgust, as he'd lied about his true nature and his immense power terrified them. No matter what he did or where he went, he couldn't avoid using his natural gifts to help those in need, but he was also worried of exposing that side of himself to the world in fear that they would reject him. He was afraid the world wasn't ready.  
>When he came back to Smallville, however, an idea struck him. Using the fabrics sent with him in his ship as an infant, the crest found on the ship, and the look of the people's attire in the holographic messages one of the ship's devices presented, he and his parents put together something he could wear during his acts of superhuman heroism that would tell the world that he's here to help and he's to be trusted. Bright primary colors made up the costume, with a blue, form-fitting suit, a red and yellow "S-shield" emblazoned on his chest, and a red, flowing cape to top it off. He decided against a mask because he wanted people to trust him, and to earn their trust, that meant making it appear as though he had nothing to hide. The world would know his name, Kal-El, but not his true identity. Instead, he decided to design a costume for the other side of himself- the Clark Kent side.<p>

While he would always be Clark Kent at heart, as that is who he was raised as, it was important to become someone who would completely throw off any suspicion that he and the extraordinary powerhouse in tights were in any way connected. To do this, he would be somebody so uninteresting that you practically forget he even exists unless you're looking him right in the face. He wears his father's prescription glasses to hide the unusually bright blue eyes he has and distort his face, he would comb his hair differently between identities, he'd wear layers of clothing to hide his strong build, and he'd slouch and act clumsy and clueless to separate him from his brave, bold, and confident alter ego. It also helped that Kryptonians had precise muscle control, allowing him to raise his voice an octave as Mr. Kent.

He moved to Metropolis, the City of Tomorrow, where he got a job as a reporter for the Daily Star, so that he could keep up with the news as it happened and have an excuse to enter dangerous situations where his special talents would be needed. And, of course, to pursue his passion for journalism, printing the truth and exposing the injustice in the world.

Clark's first public appearance in Metropolis as his costumed other half was at the site of a S.T.A.R. Labs shuttle launch, on board being many reporters there to cover the launch, including star journalist for the Daily Planet, Lois Lane. The craft malfunctioned and the people inside were in grave danger, so Clark swiftly suited up and saved the day, catching the shuttle and landing it somewhere safe. The next day, the Daily Planet had dubbed the mysterious caped wonder _Superman_, in an article written by Lois Lane.

The first friend Clark made in the City of Tomorrow was freelance photojournalist Jimmy Olsen, who was every bit the dork Clark was, but the difference being that Jimmy didn't even realize it. He believed his job was the coolest thing in the world and was so caught up in the action Metropolis managed to supply him with, it made it impossible for him to even humor the idea of his best friend Clark Kent and the city's flying strongman were one in the same. Their friendship would become strained, however, due to Jimmy's position as a freelancer and him eventually accepting a full-time job over at the Daily Star's top competitor, the Daily Planet, where he was co-worker and friend to their Pulitzer-winning reporter, Lois Lane.

Lois Lane and Clark Kent started out rivals, but Lois had the utmost respect for her opponent in journalism, as she was really a fan of Clark's impressive writing, and would eventually offer the man from Smallville a spot on the Daily Planet team when his paper went out of business. There, he met the likes of Steve Lombard, Ron Troupe, Cat Grant, and, of course, their editor-in-chief Perry White, who acted as a father to the paper, but was stern when he needed to be. So far, life seemed pretty good to Clark, seeing as he now had friends, co-workers, and a city that relied on him to help them out with his special gifts. But life didn't shine down so happily on others.

Lex Luthor had spent the years between his departure from Smallville and Superman's arrival in Metropolis building his business, LexCorp, from the ground up, having had expensive surgery done to rid him of his hideous burns, which also left him hairless. His first act of business was setting up excavation on the moon to mine for precious xenominerals that could provide the world with the clean, free energy it needed. No one took him serious at first- but then he actually did it. From that point forward, his company was a blooming success, quickly spreading its influence across not only Metropolis, but the world. LexCorp specialized in all fields, from cybernetics and genetic engineering to providing you with a more efficient vacuum cleaner.

LexCorp practically ran the world.

But under all the fame and success, Lex was a tragic and spiteful figure, still mad at the world for what it had done to him. For what it had taken from him. He saw everyone as useless, inferior cattle, none of them being even remotely on his level. No one but _him_.  
>Superman. The Man of Tomorrow. Metropolis's favorite son. Finally, Lex's theories of life away from Earth were proven correct, and he'd been delivered a being so complex, so unique, he no longer felt alone in the world.<p>

Lex didn't know this, but the caped man knew the kind of person he really was, for Superman was really Clark Kent. He was a bit surprised Lex didn't realize him, but then it hit him that the man he once knew was so self-absorbed, so lacking in empathy and understanding of the human race, that he didn't even think to consider that someone so powerful and so marvelous would seek out a personal life as someone as humble and insignificant as Clark Kent. He couldn't even grasp the concept. He failed to see that because Superman was raised as Clark, because his entire life he'd been Clark, that Clark was who he truly was. Who he wanted to be. Not who he simply chose to be.

When the two finally met due to circumstances leading Clark from a staged, seemingly 'accidental' disaster to the offices of LexCorp, both men were totally caught off guard. Across from Clark was the boy he befriended in Smallville who, last he saw him, ended up being carted from the flames of his greatest failure, and across from Lex was the answer to the only thing he'd ever dreamed of in life. Lex saw a friend, but not like Clark did. He saw an alien so impossibly sophisticated and one-of-a-kind that dwarfed the mindless drones he'd been surrounded by for all his years. Someone so fascinating he could finally establish a solid connection with.

When he tried to reach out and connect with the perplexing being, however, he was rejected. Clark knew what kind of monster his old friend had become and he wasn't about to throw away everything he believed in to do business with a power-hungry corporate manipulator who would put others in harms way to boost his own image. This enraged Luthor. In that moment, all his hopes and dreams had been shattered by the internally echoing reverberation of the alien's "No."

From that point on, the two were sworn enemies. Luthor would now dedicate his life to ruining that of the Kryptonian who'd rejected his offer of friendship. He would destroy everything Superman loved, outing him as an alien to get the public against him, targeting his friends and allies, and time and time again, getting closer and closer to the point where the Man of Steel's blood would be on his pale, cold hands. Clark felt sympathy for Luthor. He'd had such a tragic life, and now he was one of the most twisted and evil men on Earth. Once his friend, Luthor was now Superman's greatest enemy and remained so for the years to come.

Over the years, Superman was faced with strange and powerful challenges, from alien invasions to his attempts to apply a fair and just sense of right and wrong to a society that has, for the most part, strayed away from that. He is the light in a world so dimly lit. It would be his goal to bring the world to a point where they no longer need a Superman, since he believed in humanity and their limitless capacity for good. They simply needed, as his biological father put it, the light to show them the way.

To this day, he continues his never ending fight for truth, justice, and liberty, in a way only he can. He is Superman, and he'll stand up proudly and confidently for his dream until one day, he can wake up to a world where it has become a reality we all share.


End file.
